Once is Enough
by No.Emmett.I.Punched.A.Werewolf
Summary: "Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think." Bella Swan only has a year of her life left. She refuses however to die before she has even lived.


**Once is Enough. **

It has been a while since i wrote anything, but this story wouldn't leave me alone. I read a story the other day that i really loved and i decided to try my hand at a similar plot line. This story is one that i keep close to my hand. I know on a personal level something about this illness and what it does to people.

anyway i hope you enjoy it. i'll see you at the other end.

**disclaimer: all the characters belong to Mrs Meyer. Even though i would like nothing more than to claim them as my own, i don't want, not can i afford the law suit. **

_"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."_

When I was four years old I was diagnosed with acute leukaemia. Back then all it meant to me was I spent most of my days in the children's ward of Victoria hospital, at four years old being told you won't see your sixteenth birthday meant nothing at all. Twelve years was a long time to an infant but for a fifteen year old high school student less than a year was absolutely no time at all to do everything that healthy teenagers got to do in a lifetime.

"Bella, hurry up and get ready your dad will be here to pick you up in ten minutes" my mother shouted up the stairs.

When I was thirteen I got my first crush, Mitch. He was in my English class and has the prettiest blue eyes I have possibly ever seen. We used to talk all the time, about school, how annoying our parents are and how mean Sarah, the schools 'It' girl was. Three months after we became friends he asked me to be his girlfriend and I agreed. After we had been dating for a couple of months, I told him that I had Leukaemia, and we never made it another week. Mitch tried to pretend that it didn't bother him, but the truth is, nobody can find out about my illness and treat me the same it's just another fucked up part of it.

After he ended our relationship I spent a week wallowing and feeling sorry for myself, crying into my pillow and eating pints and pints of ben and jerry's ice cream until one day my mum had enough and took me to the hospital to visit someone.

Rachel was sixteen when I met her, and another leukaemia sufferer however hers was far more serious and she couldn't leave the hospital. That day at the hospital with Rachel changed my outlook on life. After a three hour conversation revolving around everything from our terminal illness's to ex boyfriends she told me about her bucket list. When she was twelve and well enough to live at home and act like a healthy teenager Rachel wrote a list of thirty things she wanted to do before she died, she told me of all the fun things she did before she was admitted into the hospital permanently.

"Bella, don't spend the next few years of your life feeling sorry for yourself and doing nothing. Yeah, we were dealt shit cards. But make the most of the ones you do have! Fall in love, get arrested, ride a hot air balloon, get so drunk you can't see straight. Hell just fail a test. But do something Bella, you'll regret it if you don't!"

Rachel died 8 months after that conversation but she will live on in me for the rest of my time. She was the best friend I ever had and helped me to learn to live again. I wrote my bucket list sat next to her hospital bed while she slept and I helped her complete the last one on her list.

#30. Change someone's life – and change mine did she ever.

That's why now, at the age of fifteen I'm moving away from my childhood home in Manchester, to London with Father. To complete another goal on my list and to spend time with my dad before my time runs out.

My name is Bella Swan, I'm fifteen and I have incurable Leukaemia. And this is my story of how I lived my last year to the fullest, loved hard and lost a twelve year battle to cancer. But most importantly completed the most important goal – To change someone's life.

* * *

Like it? Love it? Hate it? Whatever, just let me know.


End file.
